Spring training is back!

Spring training is back on Florida’s Atlantic Coast. Let’s hope it keeps coming back. The New York Mets in Port St. Lucie, the Washington Nationals in Viera and the St. Louis Cardinals and the Miami Marlins, which share a stadium in Jupiter, start playing Friday. The Mets host the Nationals at Tradition Field. The Cardinals and the Marlins play each other at Roger Dean Stadium. All four are National League teams. Last year, the Nationals had a good season and the Cardinals won the pennant but lost to Boston in the World Series. The future of spring training along the I-95 corridor is uncertain. The Nationals want to be closer to other teams to reduce travel time and expenses and may move to Florida’s Gulf Coast. That’s bad. The Houston Astros, now in Kissimmee, would like to share a new stadium, maybe with the Toronto Blue Jays, in Palm Beach County. That’s good. Astros owner Jim Crane owns the Floridian National Golf Club in Martin County. That’s good. But so far no site in Palm Beach County is available. That’s bad. If the Astros don’t come to the Atlantic Coast and the Nationals leave, the Mets, the Cardinals and the Marlins might eventually leave, too, because having just two other teams nearby is not enough. That would be VERY bad. For 88.9 FM, this is Paul Janensch.

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Does spring training have a future along Florida’s I-95 corridor? Maybe not, as Paul Janensch explains in this Treasure Coast Essay.